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Source: ONE News -
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The government is gearing up for the Job Summit in an effort to combat the global economic recession.
ONE News spoke to two very different operations who have been invited to the event, and asked them what challenges they're facing, and what they hope to get out of a meeting with the movers and shakers of New Zealand.
New Zealand owned global freight company Mainfreight is facing the same challenges as many businesses enduring the downturn.
"We need to see business confidence introduced back into the New Zealand market, and for that matter the other markets that we operate in; Australia, USA and China," says Mainfreight's Don Braid
Braid relishes the opportunity to attend the Summit.
"For too long, business has been left out of these sorts of discussions. So it's good to see this government seeing that the productive and farming sector has something to offer to the economy."
Mainfreight understands the constraints on business. Braid cites issues of complying with legislation and the costs involved.
And while he's looking forward to sharing ideas, Braid says he wants more than talk.
"Open, frank discussion, with good ideas that can work, ideas, that are adopted and implemented quickly. This cannot be a talk-fest, it has to have outcomes."
At the other end of the business spectrum is the not for profit enterprise Dress For Success.
The charity gives women returning to the workforce a step up, dressing them for a job interview.
And in tough times they too are facing challenges.
"The reality is we can still find the donors out there but it may be a slightly different way of thinking," says Sue Lewis-O'Halloran of Dress For Success, Auckland.
But Dress For Success can also offer practical solutions to women who've been made redundant, potentially taking a burden off the taxpayer.
"Fifty thousand women are now unemployed and there is a greater number who've been made redundant than there are men," says Lewis-O'Halloran
ONE News will be following both operations at Friday's Summit in Manukau, to see what they got out of the forum and if it achieved what it set out to.
TVNZ will have comprehensive coverage of the Jobs Summit with live coverage of the event on TVNZ 7 and TVNZ.co.nz, as well as reports throughout the day from TVNZ reporters on site.
